Cole. I'm sorry, but what you are doing does qualify as fumbling about. You are not actively engaged in training under anyone unless I've missed something. You have a stick and you hit people with it and try to get a little better the more often you do it. That's a pretty good description of fumbling about.

So far as I can tell you are not pretending to do anything other than what you are. Good for you. Not everyone who does what you do are so honest about it. Many swear that they are practicing some ancient art or other, despite having no actual connections to any such art. That's just dishonest. So long as you are not doing that, and it appears that you are not, and so long as nobody gets hurt, then I don't have any real problem with what you are doing. I don't understand it.

As to whether or not you like Amtgard or SCA, that is your business. Don't workout with them. End of problem. Don't expect to join a traditional Japanese dojo, or even a respected WMA group, without being asked to dress in period clothing. It's not going to happen. Again, so long as you are satisfied with what you are doing, then knock yourself out. Just don't expect anyone who is training for real to take you too seriously.

Edited by Charles Mahan (02/18/0902:07 PM)

_________________________
Iaido -
Breaking down bad habits,
and building new ones.

While i respect your opinions, i disagree. As ive said, we have several people that were in the SCA for years that are teaching us proper techniques, and i myself have done a lot of research into it online, using many things i have found online to teach myself. And while you are correct, we wont have the ability to learn under life and death circumstances, as far as i know, not many people have that 'oppurtunity'. We also have done some training with Bokkens, both katana type and longsword types, and our group is very good. Im confident that if i had a real sword, i would do better with most, but thats just me, and its not likely to happen, so i wont find out for sure under real circumstances.

My friend R__ was invited to train for one of these things (never been to one) and day before takes me up on some technique as I was lending him my shinai (one day, gad), I gave him a sure winner as I assumed he might face hack and slashers, a modification of Gedan no Kamae w/ rt leg rear and sword rt low, I was uke and as I moved to strike he stepped rt leg and Jabbed Abd, finish w/ beheading...worked like a charm, except the group said Jabs were off limits and the immediate move to behead was not looked upon well. if this is common in "Boffering" than training must be more for great swords like the Claymore than Katana, good check of this is "do you practice sword clashing sword more than once in a combat?"

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do not try to spork the post, for that is impossible, only realize there is no post to spork

Quote: And while you are correct, we wont have the ability to learn under life and death circumstances, as far as i know, not many people have that 'oppurtunity'.

That is of course correct, and the reason many of us choose to seek out genuine instruction which has been passed down from one generation to the next from a time when people did use this stuff for what it was designed for.

Why make it up if you can't ever know what you're doing is worth a damn? Why not find the real thing and do that? There may not be a training oppurtunity in your immediate area. You might even have to move to somewhere training is available. It all comes down to just how badly you want it.

To my way of thinking making it up as you go, does not qualify what you are doing as a sword art, and as such it does not qualify as a valid topic for discussion in this forum. That doesn't mean you don't find some kind of value in what you're doing. If nothing else, it sounds like a good cardio workout. Still that doesn't qualify it as a sword art. This is a topic which I am starting to think should be banned from this forum. I am curious to hear what the other forum regulars have to say about this? It's similar to the self teaching topic, which is already banned.

Edited by Charles Mahan (02/22/0906:45 PM)

_________________________
Iaido -
Breaking down bad habits,
and building new ones.

While I don't know whether or not I can be considered a "regular" I agree that boffering and the like isn't really a sword art. It is more or less a sword fighting game to me. I'm not saying one is better than the other, just that they are like apples and oranges when compared to each other.

That being said I don't think it should be a banned topic because it is not necessarily a bad thing to partake in these events while banned topics such as self-teaching is.Plus, would chanbara be also a banned topic? Also, I feel there would have to be a sticky for guidelines as to what exactly qualifies as a sword art and what can be posted.

To be clear, when I suggest the topic should be banned, I don't mean it should be banned as a dangerous or illegitimate practice. Just that it seems out of scope for this forum as it is not a sword art. We don't allow other forms of off topic discussion. Those posts get moved to other forums or deleted.

So the question becomes, is boffering a valid topic for discussion in the Sword Arts forum. This would cover topics related to all topics related to boffering, including Chanbara, Amtgard, Dagohir, and unaffiliated backyard samurai.

_________________________
Iaido -
Breaking down bad habits,
and building new ones.

I agree that discussions of this sort are technically out of the scope of this forum. However, I don't think they should be simply banned. It provides an opportunity for discussion that may be of benefit to some. Not too much other discussion going on in this forum at the moment .